Throughout this application various publications, books, patents and patent application publications are referred to. The disclosures of all of these are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties into the subject application to more fully describe the art to which the subject application pertains.
Metastasis is a prevalent killer. There are no established effective anti-metastatic therapeutics. Macrophages promote tumor progression and metastasis, and act at both the primary and secondary tumor site. At the metastatic sites, a sub-population of macrophages called metastasis associated macrophages (MAMs) is recruited by chemoattractant CCLs (Chemokine (C-C motif) ligands) largely produced by tumor cells and acting through the macrophage expressed receptor, CCR2 (C-C chemokine receptor type 2). Therapeutics aimed at all macrophages have moved into clinical trials, but these lack targeting specificity and so have toxicity issues. Targeting specific molecules synthesized by monocytes and macrophages at the tumor site is preferred.
The present invention addresses the need for novel and specific treatments for inhibiting metastasis.